U.K. Man Sentenced to Time Served for Trading Plot

Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- A U.K. man accused of taking part in
a multinational insider-trading scheme allegedly involving a
former Central Asian government official was sentenced to time
served by a U.S. judge.

Taiyyib Ali Munir, 30, was sentenced in Brooklyn, New York,
federal court today by U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein on one
count of conspiracy. Munir was arrested in July and initially
accused of passing inside tips about Global Industries Ltd.,
Tyco International Ltd. and InterMune Inc.

During his plea hearing in October, he admitted to offering
to sell confidential earnings reports about unspecified
companies to a government informant last January. Ultimately, he
didn’t provide the reports, prosecutors said in a memorandum
filed Jan. 3.

“I am totally aware that I broke the law,” Munir told
Weinstein today. “I did get cold feet and I didn’t go through
with it, but I did conspire to break the law.”

Unidentified Informant

The London-area resident was charged in an April criminal
complaint with participating in a scheme allegedly stretching
from Central Asia to Eastern Europe and New York. Prosecutors
said he worked in the “financial industry,” without providing
more details.

Prosecutors said Munir funneled tips to an informant, who
in 2010 and 2011 was living in Eastern Europe and managing the
accounts of a former government official of a Central Asian
country. Neither the official nor the informant has been
identified in public court filings.

The former official is Maksim Bakiyev, the son of former
Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a person close to the
investigation confirmed in December. The person asked not to be
named because the information isn’t public. The confidential
witness for the government was a close friend and financial
adviser to the Bakiyevs, Eugene Gourevitch, according to a
spokesman for the current president of Kyrgyzstan.

British Citizen

Maksim Bakiyev was arrested in London in October, and the
U.S. is trying to extradite him for conspiracy to commit
securities fraud and obstructing justice, the U.S. Embassy in
Kyrgyzstan said Oct. 13 in a statement.

It is unclear from public documents how Munir came to be
involved in the scheme. He is a British citizen and has been
financially supported by family and friends, Johnston said
during the hearing. At the proceeding, he wore a dark suit, tie
and glasses, with his face cleanly shaven. He sat at a table in
the courtroom with his lawyers and his sister, the only relative
of his who was present during the sentencing, according to
Johnston.

After his arrest, Munir spent a little less than a month in
federal custody, Johnston told the judge. He appeared in Los
Angeles federal court before being transferred to Brooklyn and
was released on $1 million bail, secured by $200,000 in cash
provided by his former girlfriend Dina Al Juffali, of London,
according to court documents.

‘Held Back’

He faced a maximum of five years in prison on the
conspiracy charge. Prosecutors said in court filings that a
sentence of as long as six months was appropriate. They didn’t
object to Munir’s request for time served. Posa told the judge
that Munir wasn’t cooperating with the government.

“In this case, the defendant’s acts appear to be
aberrational,” Weinstein said. “Although he did join the
conspiracy he appears to have held back and did not do anything
in connection with revealing information,” the judge continued,
adding that Munir “comes from a very stable and close family.”

In the April criminal complaint, prosecutors alleged that
from about 2010 through 2011, the informant invested “in
securities listed variously on stock exchanges in New York,
London, Milan and Madrid, based on ‘edge’ information obtained
from Munir and CC-2,” referring to a co-conspirator who wasn’t
named in the filing.

During a recorded conversation on Jan. 3, 2012, Munir asked
the informant for $122,000 to pay two other conspirators who
could obtain earnings reports 48 hours in advance of
publication, according to the complaint. Munir told the
informant the conspirators felt they were owed the funds as a
result of past profitable trades, the government said in the
filing.

Last Trade

“Obviously, they want payment,” Munir said during the
conversation, according to a transcript of the recording
excerpted in the complaint. “They want their last trade to be
paid out.”

In another recorded conversation Jan. 12, 2012, Munir
indicated that his conspirators had a source who was an ex-director of the New York Stock Exchange, according to the
complaint.

“They’re not only getting these earnings with the
paperwork 48 hours in advance, but they’ve also got the ex-director of the New York Stock Exchange,” Munir said, according
to an excerpt from a transcript of the discussion referenced in
the complaint.

The criminal case is U.S. v. Munir, 12-cr-648, U.S.
District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).